On 10 December, 1982, ET: The Extra-Terrestrial made its cinematic debut in the UK, trailing in the wake of enormous US box office success.

Reports of American cinemagoers
queueing around the block to see Spielberg's new epic were joined by accounts of
punters weeping uncontrollably at the loveable little alien's adventures -
and misadventures - on earth before they rejoined the line for a repeat
viewing.

Henry Thomas has a role in Scorsese's upcoming film, Gangs Of New York

Two decades later, and ET is returning to cinemas for its 20th
anniversary re-release, complete with brand new print, and a previously
deleted sequence
in which ET and his human pal Elliott (Henry Thomas) take a bath together.

How it will be received by modern audiences raised on a diet of
visual trickery and increasingly expensive, impressive-looking
blockbusters, will be even more interesting to witness than the film's
restored footage.

And although the film netted only $15.1m in its
opening weekend in the US, less than half the grosses of Ice Age and Blade
2, the film's continued appeal is evident.

"I think it was pretty apparent by the second day of the original release
what a phenomenon it had become," says actress Dee Wallace Stone who
played mother to ET's human friend Elliott.

Drew Barrymore overcame alcholism and drug abuse

Having also
sat through the film twice with modern audiences, she remains
confident it will stand the test of time. "It totally holds up, you
identify with so many different things on so many different levels."

Of course, younger viewers are still familiar with the extra-terrestrial
megastar, given that ET was revived as the face of British Telecom
advertising in 1998 (the campaign ended last year), but other members of
the cast may prove less familiar.

Drew Barrymore, who was just
seven-years-old when she starred in the film as Gertie, is just as well known for her films (Charlie's Angels, The
Wedding Singer, Never Been Kissed) as for her pre-teen slide
into alcoholism and drug abuse.

Henry Thomas is another cast member who
has had more success in adulthood - appearances in the likes of Legends Of
The Fall, alongside Brad Pitt, Billy Bob Thornton's All The Pretty Horses
and the forthcoming Scorsese picture Gangs Of New York have kept him in the
public eye.

Dee Wallace Stone gives acting classes and motivational speaking

Other cast members have continued to be prolific - Stone, for example, now
gives acting lessons at her own studio in Burbank ("absolutely one of my
great loves," she confirms) between back-to-back roles in TV movies and
cinematic outings.

She was last seen on the big screen in 1997's The
Frighteners and she has also developed a sideline in
motivational speaking.

"I keep reminding myself that the most important
thing for me in my life is to stay connected to my own joy, in the midst
of everything," she says.

Meanwhile character actor Peter Coyote, who plays the mysterious Keys, is constantly in demand
and will be seen next in teen drama A Walk To Remember.

Erika Eleniak, the little girl ET shared a kiss with, has notched up a brace of TV
movies and direct-to-video offerings via a stint in Baywatch and an
appearance on the cover of Playboy in 1990, and C.Thomas Howell (Tyler),
continues to work steadily, having just completed the sequel to The
Hitcher.

Modest

Even Tamara De Treaux, the 31-inch tall actress who stepped
inside the E.T suit to play the alien in certain scenes, has achieved some
kind of notoriety.

Although she died in 1990 aged just 31, De Treaux, who
still holds the record as the shortest adult actress ever to appear on
film, served as the inspiration for the character of Cadence Roth in
Armistead Maupin's 1992 novel Maybe The Moon.

Only Robert MacNaughton, who played Elliot's ET-sceptic brother Michael,
has taken the opposite route - after moving to Phoenix to work in theatre
in 1994 and finding work less than forthcoming, he took on a Christmas job
as a mail handler for the US postal service in Phoenix - and has worked
there ever since.

MacNaughton, who lives with wife Jennifer and
four-year-old son Noah has said that while he enjoys watching ET, "I find
it distracting to watch myself".

"I never saw myself as a star at all. I
always saw myself as an actor who was lucky."

With the re-issue set to
delight a new generation of fans, it looks like he is about to get lucky
all over again.